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January 21 - Māori Wars: The Tauranga Campaign starts.

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February

February 1 - Danish-Prussian War (Second war of Schleswig) begins. 57.000 Austrian and Prussian troops cross Eider River to Denmark.
February 27 - American Civil War: The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia.

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March

March 1- Alejandro Mon Menéndez takes office as Prime Minister of Spain
March 10 - American Civil War: The Red River Campaign begins as Union troops reach Alexandria, Louisiana.
March 11 - A reservoir near Sheffield bursts; 250 dead

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April

April 18 - Danish-Prussian War (Second War of Schleswig): Battle of Dybbøl. The Prussian army fielding 10,000 men defeats the Danish defending army of 9,200 at Dybbøl Mill after an artillery bombardment from April 7 to April 18.
April 22 - The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 which mandates that the inscription "In God We Trust" be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.

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May

May 5 - American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.
May 7 - American Civil War: The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards.
May 11 - American Civil War: Battle of Yellow Tavern - Confederate General JEB Stuart is mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern, Virginia.
May 12 - American Civil War: Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: The "Bloody Angle" - thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers die.
May 13 - American Civil War: Battle of Resaca - the battle begins with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta.
May 15 - American Civil War: Battle of New Market, Virginia - Students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate Army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley.
May 18 - Civil War gold hoax - New York World and the New York Journal of Commerce publish a fake proclamation that president Abraham Lincoln has issued a draft of 400,000 more soldiers
May 20 - American Civil War: Battle of Ware Bottom Church - In the Virginia Bermuda Hundred Campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory
May 26 - Montana is organized as a United States territory.

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June

June 5 - American Civil War: Battle of Piedmont - Union forces under General David Hunter defeat a Confederate army at Piedmont, West Virginia, taking nearly 1,000 prisoners.
June 10 - American Civil War: Battle of Brice's Crossroads - Confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest defeat a much larger Union force led by General Samuel D. Sturgis in Mississippi.
June 12 - American Civil War: Battle of Cold Harbor: - General Ulysses S. Grant pulls his troops from their positions at Cold Harbor, Virginia and moves south.
June 15 - Arlington National Cemetery is established when 200 acres (0.8 km²) of the grounds of Robert E. Lee's home Arlington House are officially set-aside as a military cemetery by U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
June 15 - American Civil War: Battle of Petersburg begins - Union forces under General Grant and troops led by Confederate General Robert E. Lee battle for the last time.
June 21 - Māori Wars: The Tauranga Campaign ends.

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July

July 18 - President Lincoln issues a true proclamation of conscription of 500.000 men for the US Civil War
July 20 - American Civil War: Battle of Peachtree Creek - Near Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman.
July 22 - American Civil War: Battle of Atlanta - Outside of Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate General Hood leads an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General Sherman on Bald Hill.
July 24 - American Civil War: Battle of Kernstown - Confederate General Jubal Early defeats Union troops led by General George Crook in an effort to keep the Yankees out of the Shenandoah Valley.
July 28 - American Civil War: Battle of Ezra Church begins - Confederate troops led by General Hood make a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces under General Sherman from Atlanta, Georgia.
July 29 - American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC.
July 30 - American Civil War: Battle of the Crater - Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.

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August

August 1 - Foundation of Elgin Watch Company in Elgin, Illinois
August 5 - American Civil War: Battle of Mobile Bay begins - At Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and seals one of the last major Southern ports.
August 18 - American Civil War: Battle of Globe Tavern - Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant try to cut a vital Confederate supply-line into Petersburg, Virginia, by attacking the Weldon Railroad, forcing the Confederates to use wagons.
August 22 - International Red Cross founded in Geneva, Switzerland.
August 31 - American Civil War: Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta, Georgia.

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September

September 1 - American Civil War: Confederate General Hood evacuates Atlanta after a four month siege mounted by Union General Sherman.
September 1 - 8 - Delegates from the Canadian colonies meet at the Charlottetown Conference to discuss Canadian Confederation.
September 2 - American Civil War: Union forces under General Sherman enter Atlanta a day after the Confederate defenders fled the city.
September 7 - American Civil War: Atlanta, Georgia is evacuated on orders of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman.

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October

October 2 - American Civil War: Battle of Saltville - Union forces attack Saltville, Virginia but are defeated by Confederate troops.
October 5 – Cyclone kills 70.000 in Calcutta, India
October 9 - American Civil War: Battle of Tom's Brook - Union cavalrymen in the Shenandoah Valley defeat Confederate forces at Tom's Brook, Virginia.
October 28 - American Civil War: Second Battle of Fair Oaks ends - Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant withdraw from Fair Oaks, Virginia, after failing to breach the Confederate defenses around Richmond, Virginia.
October 30 - Second war of Schleswig concluded. Denmark renounces all claim to Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg, which come under Prussian and Austrian administration.
October 30 - Helena, Montana is founded after four prospectors discover gold at "Last Chance Gulch."
October 31 - Nevada is admitted as the 36th U.S. state

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November

November 4 - American Civil War: Battle of Johnsonville - At Johnsonville, Tennessee, troops under the command of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest bombard a Union supply base with artillery and destroy millions of dollars in materiel.
November 8 - U.S. presidential election, 1864: Abraham Lincoln is reelected in an overwhelming victory over George McClellan.
November 15 - American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea begins - Union General Sherman burns Atlanta and starts to move south, destroying everything in his path in order to punish the Confederates for starting the war.
November 20 - Judicial reform of Alexander II is launched in Imperial Russia.
November 22 - American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea: Confederate General John Bell Hood invades Tennessee in an unsuccessful attempt to draw Union General Sherman from Georgia.
November 29 - Indian Wars: Sand Creek Massacre - Colorado volunteers led by Colonel John Chivington massacre at least 400 Cheyenne and Arapahoe noncombatants at Sand Creek, Colorado (where they had been given permission to camp).
November 30 - American Civil War: Battle of Franklin - The Army of Tennessee led by General Hood mounts a dramatically unsuccessful frontal assault on Union positions around Franklin, Tennessee (Hood lost six generals and almost a third of his troops).

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December

December 4 - American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea - At Waynesboro, Georgia, forces under Union General Judson Kilpatrick prevent troops led by Confederate General Joseph Wheeler from interfering with Union General Sherman's campaign of destroying a wide swath of the South on his march to Savannah, GA (Union forces did suffer more than three times the casualties as the Confederates, however).
December 15-16 - American Civil War: Union forces decisively defeat the Confederate Army of Tennessee at the Battle of Nashville

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Date unknown

Imperial forces assault the Taiping capital of Nanking in the last great battle of the civil war.
James Clerk Maxwell discovers microwaves
First Geneva Convention
Danevirke destroyed
Syllabus errorum: Pope Pius IX condemns theological liberalism as an error and claims for the supremacy of Roman Catholic Church authority over the civil society. He also condemns rationalism and socialism
Haiti declares independence
Brazil invades Uruguay in support of Venancio Flores. Paraguay attacks Brazil.
John Wisden publishes first edition of Wisden Cricketer's Almanack. It goes on to become the major annual cricket publication.
Asa Mercer travels from Seattle to the US East Coast and recruits 11 "Mercer Girls", potential wives for men on the West Coast

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Births

January 1 - Alfred Stieglitz, American photographer (d. 1946)
January 8 - Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence (d. 1892)
January 13 - Wilhelm Wien, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928)
January 24 - Marguerite Durand, French actress, journalist, and feminist leader (d. 1936)
February 7 - Arthur Collins, American Singer who recorded many early songs.(d. 1933)
March 13 - Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian expressionist painter (d. 1941)
March 14 - Casey Jones, American railway engineer (d. 1900)
March 15 - Johan Halvorsen, Norwegian composer (d. 1935)
March 19 - Charles Marion Russell, American artist (d. 1926)
April 21 - Max Weber, German sociologist (d. 1920)
May 4 - Marie Booth, the third daughter of William and Catherine Booth (d. 1937)
May 10 - Léon Gaumont, French film pioneer (d. 1946)
May 15 - Vilhelm Hammershøi, Danish painter (d. 1916)
June 3 - Ransom E. Olds, automotive pioneer (d. 1950)
June 11 - Richard Strauss, German composer (d. 1949)
June 25 - Walther Nernst, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941)
July 11 - Petar Danov, Bulgarian spiritual teacher (d. 1944)
July 13 - John Jacob Astor IV, American businessman and inventor (d. 1912)
July 20 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1931)
August 9 - Roman Dmowski, Polish politician (d. 1939)
September 14 - Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, English politician and diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1958)
October 25 - Alexander Gretchaninov, Russian composer (d. 1956)
November 11 - Alfred Hermann Fried, Austrian writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1921)
November 23 - Henry Bourne Joy, American business leader (d. 1936)
November 24 - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter (d. 1901)
November 26 - Edward Higgins, the 3rd General of The Salvation Army (d. 1947)
December 6 - William S. Hart, American film actor (d. 1946)
December 12 - Paul Elmer More, American critic and essayist (d. 1937)
Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1945)

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Date unknown

Bishop James Cannon, Jr., American religious and temperance movement leader (d. 1944)

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Deaths

January 13 - Stephen Foster, American composer (b. 1826)
May 2 - Giacomo Meyerbeer, German composer (b. 1791)
May 9 - John Sedgwick, Union General, American Civil War (b. 1813)
May 19 - Nathaniel Hawthorne, American author (b. 1804)
June 1 - Hong Xiuquan, Chinese rebel (b. 1812)
September 3 - Emil Nobel, younger brother of Alfred Nobel (killed in an explosion)
October 12 - Roger Taney, United States Supreme Court Justice (b. 1777)
November 6 - Tuanku Imam Bonjol, Indonesian religious and military leader (b. 1772)
December 1 - William L. Dayton - United States Minister to France (b.1807)
December 8 - George Boole, English mathematician and philosopher (b. Nov. 2 1815)